Bring Out Your Dead

Bad stories about big name individual investors from the corporate and hedge world keep being counted in the lines of wounded who have been liquidated, stopped, or margined-out during the October break. Previous hard corrections such as LTCM or even in the crash of 1987 never quite had the dose of slammage which has occurred in 2008. And while the interventions has been unprecedented, never have all concerned been so unsure as to whether the worst of the price erosion is over, or whether the current action is just a relief rally. When repeated testimonials acknowledge that losses of up to 50% of retirement eggs has now altered the future investment strategies of the mutual and 401K armies, there is a problem with the up in upward. There are even reports that there are not even enough pallbearers to carry out the dead among those who thought they were professional day traders. Anyway, the new trend may be born sideways.